LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Voters lined up out the door at polls across Jefferson County on Election Day.
Eneitra Beattie waited two and a half hours at the Stephen Foster Traditional Academy polling spot on 41st Street in west Louisville.
"A lot of people are becoming disgruntled, a few people are leaving, and we don't need that," she said, voting in the afternoon after the Jefferson County Clerk's office had resolved their issue with check-in tablets crashing.
In a statement, the Kentucky Secretary of State's office spokesperson Michon Lindstrom wrote, "there was no 'software issue' in Jefferson County, and the problem appears to be that insufficient time was allowed for the e-pollbooks to download the names of voters who had already cast their ballots."
So WHAS11 asked a spokesperson for the clerk's office if the tablets could have been updated earlier.
"I don't think that's something we could have done," Ashley Tinius said, explaining that the machines arrive the night before Election Day and that poll workers setup by 5:15 a.m., 45 minutes before polls opening.
The Kentucky Democratic Party requested a two-hour extension for all polls in Jefferson County, but Judge Eric Haner denied it during the final hour of voting. In his ruling, he wrote that nobody was denied the right to vote "since at no time did any of the polling locations close."
He also ruled the request was unconstitutional, since the 8 p.m. extension contradicted a 7 p.m. poll close requirement in Kentucky's constitution.
Republican Metro Councilman Anthony Piagentini felt two hours was too much, even if he saw the merit in a shorter extension like 30 minutes.
"So as much as it was frustrating in the morning and I shared in that frustration, by the afternoon, that had been remedied. And at the end of the day, I think people had the opportunity to get their voice heard through the ballot box," he said.
Black Lives Matter Louisville leader Chanelle Helm encouraged even more people to vote early next time to avoid Election Day issues. She chalked the issues up to a record turnout.
"I really wish we could've got the extension," she said. "But I'm kinda glad that people were really turning out and very passionate about the race."
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